Best Digital Marketing Tools

Best Funnel Builder Software:

ClickFunnels:

ClickFunnels is a robust and powerful landing page builder. In addition to allowing you to build email optin funnels, you can also easily create product launch funnels, membership site funnels, sales funnels and more. ClickFunnels plans range from $19/month to $297/month, with the standard plan costing $97/monh. Clickfunnels also offers an advanced and rich feature set including order bumps, one click upsells and downsells. I use ClickFunnels in my business and recommend it to everyone who needs to build funnels more complex than a basic email optin funnel.

Leadpages:

Leadpages is an affordable and professional landing page builder. They offer a range of pricing plans. The Standard plan is $37/month paid monthly or $25/month paid annually. On the more expensive plans I use Leadpages in my business and recommend it to anyone that just needs to build their email list. Leadpages will allow you to quickly and easily build an email optin funnel that includes a squeeze page and thank you page. On the more expensive plans you’ll have the ability to use LeadDigits to collect SMS optins and to create sub accounts to use for your digital marketing clients.

Builderall:

Builderall is a brand new funnel building platform. At only $29.99/month, it is quickly becoming a popular tool among digital marketers who are on a tight budget but still want to build funnels. Builderall does more than just build funnels. It’s an extremely versatile software that builds everything from websites, funnels, blogs and mobile apps. While you can use Builderall for a lot of different things, because it does so much it is very difficult to learn to use. Also, because it is so new it is far from perfect. The price will likely increase in the future as the software gains more users, so it is a good option for digital marketers who have more time than money.

Best Email Marketing Software:

ConvertKit:

ConvertKit is the email marketing solution that personally used in my business for a long time before switching to Actionetics. I believe is the best email marketing software for most online entrepreneurs starting out. It provides powerful email marketing automation supported by a well designed and easy to navigate user interface. One aspect that sets ConvertKit above competitors that offer similar pricing and functionality is the fact that ConvertKit is subscriber-centric rather than list-centric. You only have one email list which is segmented by grouping subscribers with tags, forms, sequences and segments. ConvertKit starts at $29/month (with a discounted annual plan option also offered). While ConvertKit doesn’t offer a free trial, they do offer a risk 30 day money back guarantee. One important thing worth noting is that before you can start sending email you have to get your account approved by support. This requires having a legitimate website for your company or personal brand already built.

Actionetics:

Actionetics is the email marketing software that I personally use in my business. It is not offered as a standalone solution. Rather, it is included in the ClickFunnels Etison Suite plan. Actionetics is the perfect email marketing software solution for existing ClickFunnels users that want the convenience and power of having all of their digital marketing tools under one roof. Actionetics is also a perfect solution for affiliate marketers who are concerned about having their account restricted or shut down. Since Actionetics requires integration with a 3rd party SMTP email service, you’ll also need to sign up for SendGrid (what I use), Send13 or Amazon SES. Your Actionetics account will never be shut down. If your SMTP account gets shut down, simply plug a different one into Actionetics and continue to send email without interruption.

Aweber:

While not as feature rich as the other recommended email marketing software solutions, Aweber is an incredibly beginner friendly and easy to learn tool. For folks just starting out with email marketing, who do not have access to the ClickFunnels Etison Suite plan (which includes Actionetics), and are not able to get approved for ConvertKit due to a lack of a fully developed personal or company website, Aweber is the perfect solution for them. Aweber offers a very generous 30 day free trial and plans range from $19/month for up to 500 subscribers up to $149/month for 10,000 subscribers.

Best Website Hosting:

Dreamhost:

Dreamhost has been hosting all of my domains and websites since 2007. I feel that Dreamhost is the best website hosting company and best domain registrar. Dreamhost offers a robust and affordable shared hosting plan that is both all inclusive and unlimited. For newer websites and lower traffic established websites, a single DreamHost shared hosting plan can be used to host all of your domains without experiencing any website performance issues. You can also create and host an unlimited number of professional email addresses for each of your domains on the shared hosting plan. You can easily https secure each of your websites with easy to purchase and install Komodo SSL certificates for $15/year. Dreamhost shared hosting costs $10.95/month. If you purchase a discounted annual plan they’ll also include a free domain name for a year.

Bluehost:

Bluehost is one of the most well known and popular website hosting companies online today. Many people prefer to go with the most popular solution rather than gambling on a company they’ve never heard of. With a feature set and price point comparable to Dreamhost, Bluehost is a perfect solution for hosting websites that do not have a very large traffic volume. They are especially known for their highly responsive customer support team. Hosting plans start at $8.99/month for 1 website and 5 email accounts. Worth noting is that all plans require a 12 month term commitment. However, if you are only hosting 1 website and don’t mind committing to a 1 year term, then this is a more affordable web hosting option than Dreamhost

WP Engine:

If your website has a very high volume of monthly site visitors, then the other recommended shared hosting plans may not meet the technological needs of your website. WP Engine offers affordable and reliable managed WordPress hosting. Your site will be on a dedicated IP address instead of sharing server resources with many other customers (as is the case on shared hosting plans). WP Engine ranges from $29/month up to $149/month per website hosted, depending on the plan selected.

Best WordPress Theme:

Divi by Elegant Themes:

Elegant Themes is a WordPress theme and plugin membership. The membership includes unlimited access to 83 different WordPress themes and 3 different WordPress plugins. The most popular theme in the collection is Divi. This is the WordPress theme that powers my personal website. One of the major advantages to using Divi for your WordPress website is that it uses a very intuitive page builder called the Divi Builder. It’s perfect for beginners and no coding skills are required to make full use of the features included with this theme. The personal membership costs $79/year. For $89/year you can purchase a developer license which allows you to use the themes on unlimited websites (including client websites).

Genesis Framework by Studio Press:

Genesis Framework by Studio Press is a very popular WordPress theme among more tech savvy online entrepreneurs that want a greater degree of control over the look, feel and performance of their WordPress website(s). This theme has a steeper learning curve than Divi, but also provides an enormous degree of power flexibility. The Genesis Framework is available for a one time payment of $59.95. However this option requires you to develop your own child theme. Alternatively, for a one time payment of $499.95 you will get access to the Genesis Framework, all existing child themes and all child themes released in the future.

Thrive Themes:

Thrive Themes is an entire suite of digital marketing tools that’s perfect for the online entrepreneur that wants to build their entire business on WordPress rather than relying on several different 3rd party software tools. They advertise that their themes are build from the ground up with the purpose of converting more of your website visitors into email subscribers and customers. Thrive themes is an annual membership that includes not only WordPress Themes but also a countdown timer tool, an exit pop tool, a quiz tool and membership site plugin. Access to all themes and tools costs $288/year if you only need to use them on your own websites. An agency license that allows you to use the themes and tools on client websites is $588/year.